Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Nova #29

DnA are still populating Marvel space with a ton of new characters along with re-imagined cast-offs, making for a fascinating read. This issue has Nova and a team of his Nova Corps trainees heading out to a derelict Nova Corps spacecraft. The ship drifted in from the Rift, the tear in space time created at the end of War of Kings. After setting the scene nicely with some good space horror elements, DnA turn things around by having a good guy jump Nova. The original centurion posted on the ship is still up and running and bringing down bad guys. After being banished to another universe 35 years ago, he's just been doing his job ever since. I had figured the guy would be a villain in Nova-gear, but it seems that the other guest-star, Monark Starstalker, actually knows this centurion to be a stick in the mud policeman. I love the idea that Richard Ryder is no longer the senior centurion in the corps. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this new character's arrival will affect the delicate relationships within the reforming Nova Corps.

And of course the big last page reveal of the Black Hole Suns just made me smile. You have to be a big nerd to get the reference, but having a group of "ultra-tough space miners turned villains" end up being Mindless Ones? That's just the joy of comics in action. Once again, highly recommended.

Kevin Sharpe is turning out to be a great fill-in artist for this book. I love Andrea De Vito's pencils on a normal basis, but Sharpe keeps things looking so consistent I'm fine with him too. This is a top-tier comic.